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Factory Farms Make You Sick. Let Us Count the Ways

Just
last week, a recall of more than 380,000 pounds of deli meat products distributed
nationwide to Wal-Mart stores.

Why?

Possible
contamination with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.

The
bacteria can cause listeriosis – a rare but potentially deadly disease.

Move
over Animal Farm.

Here
comes Animal Factory.

And
the animal factories are dominating the agricultural landscape.

Making
us sick and poisoning the environment.

The
Obama administration, which ran on a platform to confront factory farming, has
done little to confront the problem.

“They
don’t have the stomach to take on the factory farms,” David Kirby,
author of the book Animal Factory (St. Martin’s Press, 2010),
told Corporate Crime Reporter last week. “They are gun shy. I’m
disappointed.”

While
the Justice Department and the Department of Agriculture are holding hearings
on concentration in agribusiness, Kirby see the exercise as a glorified listening
tour.

He
doesn’t anticipate federal intervention to prevent a disaster.

But
he says what needs to be done is clear – move from factory farms to family
farms.

How?

Ban
non-therapeutic antibiotic use in animals.

Bust
up the processing cartels.

“There
are so few processing plants now and they are so centralized and big they want
to process only factory farm animals,” Kirby says.

Cut
the billions in subsidies to agribusiness.

“And
by the way, why aren’t the tea partiers out there screaming about the
billions of dollars we give away every year to these massive farms?” Kirby
asks.

“And
then take some of those subsidies and give them to small independent farmers
who can really use it to compete.”

He
says that the Obama administration ran on a platform to do some of these things.

But
it refuses to take on big agribusiness.

Kirby
says it will take a disaster to change the system.

“You
can pass all the laws you want, organize all the boycotts,” Kirby said.
“But ultimately when you cram thousands of animals into a single confined
space without access to fresh air, outdoor sunlight, pasture, natural animal
behaviors – you are asking for problems in the form of diseases that attack
people.”

“Mother
nature will have the last word. Mad cow disease was a warning. Swine flu was
a warning. MRSA was a warning. The egg recall was a warning.”

“But
we haven’t hit the big one yet.”

“Things
are changing. Consumers are waking up.”

“I
understand that there are lines around the block at farmers markets where eggs
sell out by noon.”

“Demand
for sustainably grown eggs right now is huge. That will make companies sit up
and take notice.”

“Things
are changing. But for a massive shift away from factory farming, it will probably
take some new super-virus combining the killer bird flu and some killer swine
flu.”

“And
that could happen. These chicken farms in Iowa are just down the road from the
hog farms.”

“And
birds and rodents and insects are moving in and out of these places.”

That
disaster would force public action. But what about preventable public action
by the Obama administration.

“It
won’t be enough to have a serious impact on the structure of the factory
farms,” Kirby says. “We are awash in apathy in this country.”

[For
a complete transcript of the Interview with David Kirby see 24 Corporate Crime
Reporter 33(10), August 30, 2010, print edition only.]

THE LAST FIREWALL AGAINST THE LIES

Independent media has become the last firewall against government and corporate lies. Yet, with frightening regularity, independent media sources are losing funding, closing down or being blacked out by Google and Facebook. Never before has independent media been more endangered. If you believe in Common Dreams, if you believe in people-powered independent media, please support our critical Winter campaign now and help us fight—with truths—against the lies that would smother our democracy. Please help keep Common Dreams alive and growing.

Further

With evidence growing that prayer will not stop bullets from killing school children, the kids themselves are stepping up to be the grownups in the room and say the NRA and their fucking guns must go. Just down the road from the latest slaughter, they walked out of class and held livid, poignant signs declaring it's time to protect our kids, not their guns. The chorus swells. Vote all the blood-soaked lackeys out.